Perspective
by PrincessVanya
Summary: Guilt was the driving factor behind their lives, it controlled and consumed their every step. The shadow of a darker past defined them as a victim and a monster. Those were the roles that they had trapped themselves in, but definitions of character are merely a matter of perspective. AU SasuSaku, post-Shippuden
1. Cowardice

**Cowardice**

The river of people swarming through the main streets of Konoha elicited what sounded like a quiet murmur of sound at this distance – a conglomerate of individual voices and footsteps. Somewhere, a woman was herding her children home, elsewhere, a man haggling over the price of some trinket, but from where he stood on the dark side streets of the village, he heard none of it. The sounds blended into the dark of the night, just as he hoped to. He'd been through it before, the looks and stares. They ranged anywhere from stares of pity to stares of outright hatred, but there were _always_ stares.

His slinking in the shadows, hiding from the masses – it wasn't for fear of the attention of large crowds; he was hiding from the attention of a certain someone who might be hiding in that crowd, the voice that might be blended with the rest. He was the kind of man who could face down any adversary; any fight, but still hid away from his teammate, one of his closest allies, if he could still use the term. Attempting to kill a person tended to freeze over an alliance.

So here he was, hiding in the shadows, the last of the great Uchiha, a coward. Cowardice was the price that he'd have to pay to make up for his faults. The pain that he'd caused in the past was enough; she didn't need to see him again to reopen old wounds. Tonight, like every night since his return, and every night in the future, he'd stay hidden away from the blossom that had once been his to take. He didn't deserve her now. _Sakura…_

* * *

_Hey everyone, thanks for reading the first chapter of my first attempt at writing SasuSaku. If you liked it, or if you didn't like it and have something that you want me to work on, add a review and let me know! I'm hoping to learn from those of you with a little more experience, but I'm really excited about this fic, and I hope you are too! Thanks again!_


	2. Guilt

**Guilt**

Walking out of a set of double doors into the lobby of the hospital, Sakura had her eyes glued down to the clipboard that held the details of the last patient she'd treated. "Shizune, can you send a message to – " Her speech was cut short as a flash of spiked dark hair and pale skin flashed by her. She immediately flung herself backward, rolling her back up against the wall and clutching the clipboard to her chest. _He wouldn't come here… would he?_

Slowly, she peeked around the corner to reveal a man with his hair spiked up from bed head, his skin pale with exhaustion and worry. A man waiting for news on a sick family member. She shook her head and exhaled slowly. Taking an extra shift that night had really taken a toll on her nerves. There was no way that _he_ would ever come in here. After all, attempting to kill a person tended to take away from one's medical credentials.

She peered out into the growing darkness past the windows of the hospital to where she knew he was, waiting in the night, the man to which her thoughts and guilt were eternally enslaved. He had once been the center of her world, then the focus of her future, but now, he was the victim of her primal coldness, for if events had revealed anything, it was that she was a terrible person. What kind of doctor tried to kill a teammate? The words of her former sensei rang in her ears, _"Those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum."_

All she could do now was volunteer for more shifts; heal more people, save more lives, live in an endless cycle of penance for a mistake she could never make up. She lived for her work, for the longer she stayed within the confines of the hospital, the longer she could avoid his piercing eyes, eyes that she once craved to see the light leave. _Those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum. Sasuke…_

* * *

_Thanks again for reading on to this second chapter, I hope that with every chapter to come I only improve on the story from there. :) I'm hoping to get the chapters from here on out a little longer, but these first two are just introducing the position that Sasuke and Sakura are in right now. I hope you enjoyed, and if there's any advice or comments you could give me, I'd love that! Thanks again!_


	3. Memories

**Memories**

He could hear it before he saw it – the unmistakable sound of a certain blonde idiot tramping down the street towards him. Naruto, even after becoming a village hero, was still a loud, reckless, obnoxious idiot.

"Sasuke!" he cried. Sasuke clenched his jaw and kept walking. Maybe if Naruto was ignored, he'd go away.

"Oi, don't ignore me! I'm the hero of Konoha, you should be grateful to me, you bastard!" Sasuke rolled his eyes, but stopped and turned.

"You might go around playing hero, but you still act like a genin just out of the academy, idiot."

Naruto's brow furrowed in rage and he pointed his finger at Sasuke. "You'd better watch it, someday, when I'm the – "

Sasuke bit out a quick response to save himself the all too familiar "when I'm the Hokage" speech that Naruto gave whenever he thought someone might listen. "Did you call for me just to inflict your idiocy on me in false declarations of power, or did you actually have a real purpose?" he asked. Naruto spent a great deal of time hanging around the Hokage's office, nagging people often, and if he'd been sent with a message from her, Sasuke needed to know. He had been granted some form of pardon for his crimes, but animosity remained, and there could still be ramifications in his future. It would be just like the blonde idiot to forget to tell him something like that.

Naruto, distracted by the question from his delusions of grandeur, changed his tone and said, "Actually, I do. I think I know what you're going to be doing later this afternoon." He grinned, almost maniacally. _Community service. Trial by officials. D ranked mission. What is it this time?_

The blonde built upon his original statement, "Well, we haven't trained together since you got back from… and today I thought maybe that would be a good idea."

Sasuke stared Naruto down, calculating. "You're leaving tomorrow on a mission, aren't you? Surely even an idiot like you knows that it would be a bad idea to have me hospitalize you with so little time to recover."

Naruto bristled. "As if you could, you cocky, arrogant son of a – "he took a breath and outstretched his fingers as if to release the tension. "Whatever. Well, I was thinking – "

"A miracle really," Sasuke interrupted, causing another angry shout, something about not letting him finish, followed by Naruto practically yelling at him,

"Sakura has the day off today and I want to train as a team again!"

Sasuke's face went blank at her name, but inside, his stomach coiled into a tight knot as blades of guilt stabbed at his mind. He turned away from Naruto and began walking the way he'd originally been going. Naruto's shouted explanation was instantaneous.

"I just thought, she never takes the day off, and I was walking by the hospital ward where she works and I overheard one of the nurses asking her what her plans were, and so I knew that she was free, and then I was thinking, wow, we haven't done anything with the three of us since you left, practically, and –"

"Forget it Naruto," Sasuke said. "No." He kept walking without purpose, still feeling the nervous energy in his chest, swirling around that gaping pit of past transgressions in his core. He walked like that for a long time, thinking about what Naruto had been suggesting. To train as a team again, that was completely out of the question. Team 7 had been shoved apart on the night that a pink haired genin was left on a park bench in the night as he flew away to the promise of power. All of the years they had spent apart had pulled at the strings of the team, but they were snapped, irreparably broken when he tried to extinguish her light. Annoying, weak, useless Sakura, but Sakura of Team 7 nevertheless. That was the moment that the team was officially destroyed. He couldn't possibly hold any longing for a group that he smashed apart, no; training was absolutely out of the question.

He found himself standing on a small bridge crossing a bubbling stream, the bottom of which was covered in rounded off rocks gleaming in the sun that reflected off of their perfect surfaces. The water was too shallow to hold fish, but it brought peace to his mind, small as it was. He gripped the wooden hand rail and leaned over the edge to watch the water for a while, using the sight of the clear water to wash away any thoughts of the morning that Naruto had dredged up and tossed around in his head, messing with the clean order of his brain. Those memories were kept away, locked up in his head, resurfacing them was never a good idea.

Absentmindedly, he ran a thumb over the wooden rail, polished from the wear of many hands passing over it through the years. His thumb caught briefly on an indent, and he shifted the finger away to peer at the wood. His entire body went weak for a moment.

Inside a small heart carved out by the kunai of a long forgotten time were the initials SH and SU. The memory of her, the innocent, silly little girl that she once was, washed over him, and he gripped the rail so hard that the wood began to splinter from the pressure of his hands and digging of fingernails.

_Is no place safe from my past? This entire village is soaked in poisonous memories, why must I be so tormented? One thousand years of life could not erase her presence from my life, so it would seem. Am I really condemned to face this forever?_

The memories were flooding his body, so vivid and real, he could almost feel her chakra again. Light, and now, untouchable. A flash of pink, white, pale skin, green eyes, she was completely untouchable. He closed his eyes in frustration. The chakra was getting stronger. Almost… too strong. The pain of the past dulled a bit as curiosity took off the edge. He opened his eyes, and immediately felt a spike in the chakra signature. His eyes were faced now with a sight that had plagued his dreams for months. Nightmares of this moment, this encounter. The pink, the white, the green, no longer a memory.

Standing before him in sickening reality was Sakura Haruno, in the flesh.

* * *

_Thank you so much to everyone who's read this story so far, it means a lot to me. An extra special thank you to you who reviewed the last two chapters, I'm truly grateful, and your continued feedback would be greatly appreciated._

_Thank you to: **LilithiaRW** __and **Aruon **for your comments and encouragement. :)_

_Until next time!_

_~ PrincessVanya_


End file.
